Treatment procedures and medical procedures performed on a body are commonly assisted by an imaging modality. Such treatment may include in some instances a diagnosis procedure, intended to collect information associated with the treated body. In some instances the treatment may include an intervention procedure such as a surgical procedure. Such intervention procedure is intended to intervene with the treated body, for example by removing material from the body or adding material or components thereto, manipulating body parts, for example to improve functionality, and so on.
Generally, an imaging modality used during a treatment procedure provides a user—for example a surgeon—a visible image corresponding to a selected region of the treated body, on a screen. Such an image is provided, in some instances and using some techniques, in real-time. Examples for real-time imaging during a treatment procedure are ultrasound imaging; some types of X-rays based imaging; CT; MRI; elastograph; and video imaging provided, for example, by a small CCD camera that is inserted to the treated body by catheterization and moved inside the body through a natural body conduit such as a blood vessel.
Many treatment procedures further employ a tracking system for example to facilitate localizing the treatment substantially only to a desired region of the treated body. A tracking system provides to a user, substantially in real-time, the location of an object, for example by providing a flow of data representing the three-dimensional (3D) location of the object as a function of time, relative to an origin of a pre-selected system of coordinates. The object may be for example a probe that is used for diagnostic purposes, e.g. a probe of an imaging modality. According to other examples an object which location is so provided substantially continuously may be a surgical instrument used for an intervention purpose, possibly inside the treated body, thereby not being directly seen by the user.
By considering the instantaneous location of a probe of the imaging modality (provided by the tracking system) and the location of the imaged region relative to the probe, assigning a position data to images of the imaging modality is enabled. Specifically, each pixel in the images may be assigned a 3D location along the pre-selected coordinates system mentioned above. Image data which is so assigned with image position data may further be employed for various objectives.
A virtual three-dimensional (3D) model of an organ which is subject to a medical procedure can be very helpful for the physician carrying out such procedure. Medical procedures that may be assisted by virtual 3D models are surgical procedures; intervening procedures employed for diagnostics purposes—for example Trans-Rectum Ultrasound (TRUS) imaging; and non-intervening procedures such as external inspection procedures.
In some instances a virtual 3D model may be generated from image data assigned with image position data as described above. Patent Application WO/2011/161684 (hereinafter '684) discloses embodiments of an integrated system configured to generate virtual 3D models from image data which is so assigned with image position data. A generated 3D model of an organ may be assigned a 3D position data relative to the patient's body—for example, relative to other organs of the body or to particular regions of the body that are easily identified—and may further be displayed to a user within a wider region of a body part. A 3D model of an organ which is so displayed may further be used and may assist for example in directing a treatment tool to the organ or to a region of the organ. Such integrated systems may further be used to virtually mark and store, on the model, regions that may be treated in the future or regions that were treated in the past, and even to associate with such marked regions of the organ past treatment results.
According to some embodiments disclosed in '684, such an integrated system as described above may be used to facilitate treatment which involves obtaining biopsy samples from a prostate. A treatment to a prostate suspected of having cancerous regions often involves obtaining several biopsy samples distributed within the prostate in a first session, and following inspection of the samples in a laboratory, providing a local treatment in a few or all of the sites from which samples were obtained, in a second session. Particularly, the system makes the locations of biopsy samples taken during a first session, visible to a surgeon during a subsequent treatment session. For example, a virtual 3D model of the prostate under treatment may be generated as described above, and the locations from which biopsy samples were obtained in the first session may be marked thereon. The model is stored in a computer's memory and pathology results of each biopsy sample may be virtually linked to the model at the location on the model from which each such biopsy sample was obtained. Since each biopsy sample location is individually identified, a physician is enabled to treat locations from which samples taken were shown by pathological analysis to be problematic, and has the option of not treating locations from which samples taken were shown to be healthy. Thus, during a second session, the virtual 3D model may be displayed on a screen together with a real-time image of the prostate and together with a real-time image of a treatment tool such as an ablation needle inserted into the prostate. By allowing the surgeon a simultaneous view of the desired treatment location (e.g. as a marked point on the virtual 3D model or on a live image) and the real-time location of the treatment tool as it is advanced towards the treatment location, local and focused treatment is facilitated and enabled.